Improvement in steam-radiators



1. A. MILLER.

Steam Badiatgrs.

N0.153,I76. Patentgdjuiy 2'hl874.

THE GRAPHIC COJHOTO-LIYHJSI 41 PARK PLACE NY.

JOSEPH A. MILLER, OF PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND.

IMPROVEMENT IN 'STEAM-RADIAT'ORS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. dated July 21, 1874;application filed- November 6, 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

ie it known that I, J OSEPH A. MILLER, of the city of Providence, in theState of Rhode Island, have invented Improvements in Steam- B-adiators,of which the following is a specification My invention relates to thatclass of devices known as steam-radiators; and it consists in thecombination of the several elements, for the purposes to be hereinafterdescribed.

Figure I is a perspective view, showing the radiator in section. Fig. IIis a top view, and Fig. III is an enlarged section.

Corresponding letters refer to corresponding parts.

The radiator consists of the base chamber A, the upper chamber A, thetubes or hollow columns B B, and the tubes 0 C. The tubes B B aresecured to the chambers A A, as shown, and the tubes 0 O are placedconcentric within the tubes B B, and are secured by expanding the sameon each end. When so secured, the tubes or hollow columns B B presenttheir outer surface to the air and their inner surface to the steam,whereas the tubes 0 0 present their inner surface to the air and theirouter surface to the steam. W hen the space below the base chamber A Ais closed to the floor, and fresh air is supplied to this space by anair duct or flue, the fresh air can only enter the room through thetubes 0 G, as is indicated by the arrows, and is heated before it entersthe room. The base chamber A has a partition, E, near the end where thesteam islet in, dividing this part of the chamber from the part wherethe steam and con densed water are let out, and compelling the steam toascend through the annular space between the tube B and tube Ointo theupper chamber A, filling the same, and gradually descending, through theannular spaces between the tubes B B and G (J, to the base or lowerchamber, expelling the air and giving free vent to the condensed waterthrough the exitpipe, as is shown by the arrows in Fig. I. The tubes B Bmay be plain metallic tubes of uniform diameter, and if so, they may beforced into the holes in the chambers A A by pressure, so as to make asteam-tight joint; or they may be ornamental cast columns, havingshoulders against which the chambers A A rest, and a cement joint beused, as shown in Fig. III, and the tubes 0 O afterward secured by anexpander. All the tools required to construct the radiators are drillsand expanding-tools, nor is there any skilled or cost- 1y labor requiredin their construction. The tubes 0 O acting as stays and tie-rods aswell as heating surfaces, and the tubes B B as columns, and theirbearing being well distributed over nearly the whole of the flatsurfaces of the chambersA A, these chambers may be made .of lightermetal, and still be able to withstand a higher steam pressure than isthe case with the usual construction, while all the material used isuseful as a heating-surface.

When rooms are heated by steam-radiators, fresh cold air is generally asmuch as possible excluded, and ventilation necessarily deficient; andwhen cold air enters by door or window, the colder and consequentlyheavier air falls to the floor and makes the room uncomfortable andunhealthy. Indirect radiation where air first heated by steam-pipes isadmitted by register is not always possible, nor is this method aspleasant and comfortable as direct radiation. By the use of theradiator, as shown in Fig. I, a supply of fresh pure air can in allcases be secured, either by connecting the space below the chamber Awith an unused chimney-flue, or by a flue through the wall with theouter air, or with the hall of the building, and direct radiation with asupply of fresh air secured. When the radiator is placed as in Fig. I,over a cold-air flue or duct in the floor, the air can only enter theroom through the tubes G O, and only so fast as the air is heated to atemperature higher than the air in the room. Pure fresh air isconstantly supplied without local drafts and if proper means ofventilation are secured to carry off the vitia-ted air, perfectventilation anda warm and comfortable room, with the least expenditureof steam is the result.

In some rooms where modes of supplying fresh air exist, or where doorsare opened so often as to bring in sufficient, and more than sufficient,fresh air, I make my radiator open between the lower or base chamber Aand the floor, so that the colder air near the floor may freely pass tothe lower part of the tubes 0 O; and as a strong upward current alwaysexists within these tubes, the cold air is drawn to and through thesame, and discharged into the room heated, producing a circulation ofair throughout the room, and securing a more uniform temperature.

The efi'iciency of a radiator depends on the complete expulsion of allthe air from its in terior, so as to allow the steam to fill ever T partthereof. The partition E in the chamber A, by compelling the steam toascend and get on top of the colder air, completely insures this; andwhen steam is let onto this radiator, a person can feel how the heatgradually descends as the air is expelled, until the whole has a uniformtemperature.

